By Taylor Murray

Copyright dailyrecord

Stephen Robinson says Killian Phillips is one of the driving forces behind St Mirren’s success. The Republic of Ireland international scored the crucial goal on Saturday at the SMiSA Stadium in the 1-0 win over Dundee when he poked home Mikael Mandron’s low strike in the first half. It was a hard-fought victory for Saints who now sit in third place in the Premiership table and are now eight league games unbeaten at the SMiSA — with the last defeat on home soil coming on March 1 when Celtic won 5-2. Buddies boss Robbo was quick to credit the full team for their performance against the Dark Blues, and helping the club maintain a high standard. But when asked about Phillips specifically, the Northern Irishman was full of compliments for the former Crystal Palace man. He said: “Listen, he’s infectious. He drives the team. He drives training. He drives everybody. We love him to bits here. You can see the relationship he has with fans. “And he gets a great goal. It’s actually a really, really good move as well with 13 or 14 passes in it [and] Killian gets in after good play. He leads the team along with others and I thought the whole back five were very, very good, too. Miguel Freckleton was outstanding. So, some very, very good performances.” Mark O’Hara has had an injection to try to recover from his injury against Kilmarnock in the Premier Sports Cup. Marcus Fraser, who was forced off against Falkirk, is “defying odds” according to Robbo and may not be missing for as long as first feared. However, the Buddies were dealt a late blow on Friday when Keanu Baccus pulled up with an injury with the last kick of the ball in training. A suspected groin strain looks set to keep the Australian midfielder out for a number of weeks. Robbo said: “We’re missing Mark, Keanu and Marcus. You take them three boys out of any team, you’re going to potentially struggle. But we didn’t. Other players stepped up and done very well, and so, I’m delighted with the result. “Roland Idowu came in and replaced Mark and he was terrific for 60-70 minutes. He got cramp because he’s not playing. We have to get him to that 90-minute mark. But he’s a talented boy. “Liam Donnelly came in and I thought he was excellent; secured the game for us. Ticked it over really, really well and he’s not fully fit. He’s needs must at the moment. “We’ve got a squad that’s like for like at the minute. We don’t have a lot of numbers so we certainly can’t afford any other ones.” Saints yesterday assessed defender Richard King and strike star Mandron for knocks picked up in the Dundee win as they begin preparations for this Saturday’s top-flight trip to Killie. Don’t miss the latest Renfrewshire headlines – you can sign up to our free daily newsletter here